“Cry Out, America”

“He has told you, O man, what is good, and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” -Micah 6:8 (ESV). “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing.” -James 1:22-25 (ESV).

Today, September 11, 2016, marks the fifteenth anniversary of what we term “9/11,” that infamous date in America’s history when two planes on a terrorist-seized mission crashed into the Twin Towers of the Trade Center in New York City, when another plane crashed into a portion of the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia, and a fourth plane, whom authorities later believed was directed on either the White House or the U. S. Capitol, was redirected and crashed in a field in Shanksville, Pa. It was a dark day for America when about 3,000 were killed and America was put on notice of a way of life that has been different since. Terrorist attacks are real. The threat is astronomical.

These acts have caused people to ask, “Are we in the days before the final judgment?” We know the teachings of Jesus on that subject, that no one, save the Father in Heaven, knows the day or the hour. But such events—and there have been more since that infamous 9/11—have turned our thoughts seriously to the last days, the days of judgment.

Our scripture focus verses for today teach us God’s requirements. From Micah, we learn that believers are to “do justice, love kindness, walk humbly with God.” From James we learn that we are to be “doers of the word, and not hearers only.” Our actions should be commensurate with what we know of the Word and teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. In the days since 9/11, in these fifteen years, we have had books and sermons, pleas from ministers and leaders to “Return, return to God.” Even during this year 2016, Franklin Graham has launched his effort “Decision America” in which he has scheduled rallies on capitol lawns of all 50 states in our Union with the plea to for the people to turn again to God.

Since 2008, the effort, “Cry Out, America,” has seen rallies held on court house lawns and other public places where the Word of God, the Bible, is read and men and women gather for earnest prayers on the very day commemorating 9/11.

What does this say of us as believing Americans, in a land where the motto since our founding has been “In God we trust”? Many do and are turning to God. Will we, as Sodom and Gomorrah, of old, experience destruction because not enough of a remnant is faithful to warrant God’s saving our nation? We know assuredly that we are living in perilous times. I do not want to be considered an alarmist, one who sounds a trumpet of doom. However, we rest in the assurance that those who know the Lord truly, in spirit and in truth, will be known by Him, both now and in the judgment. “Cry out, America!” God still hears and answers. - Ethelene Dyer Jones -9.11.2016